disaster recovery

Are there any disaster recovery programs like Acronis that off a trial of their software that is a full version? I have an old win 2003 sbs and I want to take it out of the environment but I want to create a backup or iso of the machine before I do this but I don't want to buy something I'm only going to use 1 time.

I would not recommend using a trial version in your situation. MOST trial products still have clauses in the EULA that do not allow them to be used for "live" purposes so, at best, you'd be breaking the law. At worst, you actually *need* that backup because something goes wrong, and when you try to get support, they bust you and you pay for a real license *AND* some extra fees. Not a great place to leave yourself.

For your situation, I'd recommend picking up a "ShadowProtect IT Edition" subscription. You aren't buying a license, you are renting it for the amount of time you need. And it isn't tied to one piece of hardware like a purchased license often is, hence the IT edition naming. It was specifically designed for consultants who may need to reuse the license on multiple machines and various one-off situations, and is priced accordingly.

While I carry a continual license, you can get one for a window as small as a week or two. It still isn't super cheap, but much cheaper than a full blown server backup license from major vendors like Acronis, Veaam, BackupExec, etc.

So if I make a backup/image of my system using ShadowProtect IT Edition, and I only need it for a week does that mean I can use it for a week or that I can restore to a a new machine within a week? Is the backup/image I create good indefinitley or does it at some point expire for lack of a better word?

The backup is good indefinitely, HOWEVER, you would not be able to launch the restore program if your subscription is expired. So, if you decide in a year you want to restore (dunno why, but sure...), you could get another subscription and then have access to the program to restore again.

This use case outlines the migration challenges that organizations face and how the Acronis AnyData Engine supports physical-to-physical (P2P), physical-to-virtual (P2V), virtual to physical (V2P), and cross-virtual (V2V) migration scenarios to address these challenges.

...another point, Acronis is three times more than Storagecraft so if by chance you did have to make a purchase you can get away with a great product for $500 or less going with Storagecraft. Acronis will be around $1200 - $1500.

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